David Playing the Harp before King Saul
Antoine-Jean Gros (1771-1835) · 1822
The young David, harp in hand, plays before King Saul, who sits tormented by the dark mood that the Bible describes. Michal, Saul's daughter, has brought the shepherd boy into the king's presence, as the old inscription on the back of the canvas explains: David is introduced to Saul by Michal to dispel by the harmony of his harp the black melancholy that tormented the king. The scene is built as a stage: the brooding king, the slender musician, the courtiers watching for the music to work.
Gros painted the picture in eighteen twenty two for Louis-Philippe, duke of Orléans, the future king, whose monogram is stamped on the stretcher; it was intended for his gallery at the Palais-Royal and was shown at the Salon of eighteen twenty two. Sold at the king's estate sale in eighteen fifty one, it disappeared into private collections, was sold in New York in nineteen ninety three, and was bought in nineteen ninety five by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé. When Bergé's collection was dispersed at Sotheby's in Paris on the thirtieth of October twenty eighteen, the Louvre exercised its right of pre-emption and brought the canvas into the national collection.
Did You Know? The picture hung in the collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé before the Louvre secured it at auction in twenty eighteen.
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